Darling: I will set out spending plans

I do hope Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson will find time to read Andrew Grice's interview with Alistair Darling in the Independent. The Chancellor puts his colleagues straight on the prospects for a comprehensive spending review this side of an election: there may well be one before polling day, he won't make a final decision until the PBR in November. Crucially, he says Labour will have to set out its stall so that voters know what to expect. Here's the key bit:

"Mr Darling insists the uncertain economic position means he cannot decide now whether to go ahead with the scheduled comprehensive spending review (CSR). He will announce his decision in his pre-Budget report, due in November. "To do detailed allocations running up to 2013-14 at the moment, with all the uncertainty, just does not make any sense," he says.

He promises that, one way or the other, Labour will make its spending priorities clear before the election, in an attempt to flush out the Tories. One option might be a mini-CSR. Another is to announce before the election which budgets would be ring-fenced, challenging the Tories to do the same.

Although he hasn't yet decided how, Mr Darling promises to ensure a clear choice. "We have to be clear, as we go into an election – and the Tories will have to be – which choices we are prepared to make," he says."